The Campus Activities Board (CAB) hosted its final Plexapalooza concert on Jan. 26. Dubbing the 2019 installment “The Last Plexapalooza,” due to the Flynn Recreation Complex’s impending replacement with the Margot Connell Recreation Center next semester, CAB welcomed DJs RL Grime and Audien as the final performers for a night of popular party hits and reinspired remixes.
Since its inception, Plexapalooza has been somewhat of an oddity. Boston College students convene in a dated recreation center usually reserved for the health-conscious to listen to EDM—a burgeoning genre of music that had been considered a fringe movement until the 2000s—while risking their hearing and potential hypothermia in the process. Nonetheless, Plexapalooza is a BC tradition as ingrained in the collective consciousness as the Red Bandana Run or Marathon Monday, arriving each January to relieve students of their early semester stress like clockwork.
This year, Audien was first to take the Plex basketball court makeshift stage, bringing with him a queue of smooth transitions between hits like Bon Jovi’s “Living on a Prayer,” The Killer’s “When You Were Young,” and even RL Grime’s “UCLA.” The Connecticut-born musician provided the perfect playlist to get the massive crowd of students in the mood for Grime’s set.
Grime took the stage to the sound of loud applause and screams from the crowd. Rambunctious and ready to release bouts of energy on the dance floor, the crowd surged for the first few minutes of the DJ’s set. Utilizing bright colorful backdrops, smoke effects, and shots of confetti, Grime created an immersive experience for the expectant Plex-goers.
Grime was sure to utilize well-known tracks that the crowd could easily sing along to throughout the night, but also mixed in a number of his originals such as “Stay For It” and the smash hit “UCLA.” The crowd reciprocated Grime’s bubbly energy: While the DJ hopped around the stage from behind the elevated booth, crowd members danced, moshed, chanted, and even climbed onto others’ shoulders to get a better view.
The Los Angeles-based DJ hit a high note in the beginning of his set with a heavily remixed version of Kanye West’s “Power,” during which the crowd chanted along with the “Ahh hey” opening. Grime kept the momentum going with fan favorite “SICKO MODE.”
Although playing popular, easily recognizable radio hits certainly worked to his advantage early in the set, Grime ventured into his own catalogue and got a little more experimental toward the end of his set. “UCLA,” Grime’s most recent party hit, was certainly the height of the set. Confetti filled the hazy air of the Plex, as the crowd yelled the lyrics “She just moved to LA / Go to UCLA” back to the artist. To round out the night, Grime set out to slowly bring the energy level down from its apex, mixing in slower, albeit well-known tracks like “Mo Bamba” and samples from “Circle of Life,” the Lion King theme song.
Featured Image by Jess Rivilis / Heights Staff
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